In March of this year a brutal car crash made headlines across
China. The car, a black Ferrari 458 Spider, reportedly bought for
almost $1 million, was traveling so fast along Beijing's ring
road that it split in two when it hit a bridge at 4am,
the Age reports.

Images of the ruined car soon spread via Weibo and other sites:

Weibo

Soon there was more intrigue.
A story in the state-run Global Times reported that “almost
all online information’’ about the crash had been deleted
overnight, and rumors began to swirl about the identity of the
driver.

The crash left one of his fellow students paralyzed, according to
the Post, and the fate of the younger Ling himself is unclear.
A follow-up story from Reuters said he survived while
the New York Times reported he died in the crash.
The Telegraph reports that college friends have not heard
from Ling since the accident, and his social network accounts
have not been updated.
The New York Times also contains the detail that the younger
Ling and his two female passengers were "in a state of undress"
in the two-seater at the time of the crash.

Reports in the Post certainly suggest a cover-up. Apparently the
younger Ling's name was omitted on forms filled out by police
investigators, and curiously replaced by "Jia", leading some
people to believe that the crash was caused by the son of a rival
of Hu Jintao's Jia Qinglin. These rumors reportedly led to
further investigation.

Why would the older Ling work so hard to cover up the crash? It's
hard to say, but it may have been in an attempt to avoid
questions about his son's lavish "playboy" lifestyle — it is very
hard to imagine he could afford to buy his son a $1 million
supercar on his official salary, and the ongoing Bo Xilai scandal
has poured new levels of scrutiny on the finances of the Chinese
elite.

Whatever the reason, it appears that Ling Jihua has been punished
for his son's tragic crash and the apparent cover up — shifted
from the General Office of the party’s Central Committee to the
United Front Work Department this weekend, effectively moving
from the center of Chinese government life to the sidelines.
Hu Jintao is likely embarrassed by the
situation involving a key ally, and there is much chatter about
how the scandal could affect this year's leadership change in
China.

In a final, "only-in-China" twist, Bishop, a seasoned-China
watcher, has publicly wondered if the slow leaking of news about
the crash could be an attempt to "smear" Ling Jihua — although
who would want to do that isn't clear.